“Heather has effectively used this tool to help a diversity of students in tackling their business design challenges. It helped them to get onto the same page, to tap into their individual talents and to work productively together in designing impressive new business ideas!”

- bob wielefounder & Ceo, one smart world

The discipline of Business Design take more than mastery of methods, it takes the right mindset and a disciplined approach to how you ‘think’ at each stage of the process.

How you regulate your ‘thinking mode’ affects your ability to complete specific Business Design tasks, and your ability to collaborate with others. Your mode of thinking is not static; you can choose how you ‘think’ at different times by developing greater mindfulness, discipline, and mental agility. Mastering how you regulate your thinking is just as important as mastery of Business Design methodologies.

A tool I have used in teaching Business Design is One Smart World®. It helps teams better appreciate their personal thinking preferences and those of their team members. Many of my students cite this profiling tool as being critical in helping them work more effectively on teams and tackle some of the more difficult project tasks required.

Understanding

Throughout the Business Design process, there will be times to push the pause button to deepen understanding. An essential component in Gear 1, it is equally important throughout the entire process of designing a business. Whether you are considering people, ideas, choices, or actions, understanding is needed for optimal results.

generating

This mode of thinking enables you to unleash your imagination and innate creativity. Like understanding, it is important at every stage of Business Design. Generating hypotheses and prototypes that answer questions like “What might people really need? How might we address that need? How might we configure our business to meet this goal?” can provide you with a more diverse array of options to consider.

synthesizing & deciding

There are natural points in the Business Design process at which you will need to synthesize discoveries and ideas and make choices. Which opportunity gaps in the market are we going to pursue? Which components of the idea offer the greatest value? What strategy will we employ to achieve our vision? How will this be activated? This mode of thinking is essential in realizing your innovation goals.